Reasons for God’s Wrath – Its Reality (Part 2)

Romans 1:19

¹⁹ because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, ²¹ because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Professing to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. ²⁴ Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,

Four cautions are in order in regard to spurious teachings about God’s wrath. First, we should be aware of the great appeal to the natural man of such concepts as unconscious soul sleep and universalism, both of which deny God’s judgment and wrath. Second, we should recognize the pervasive influence of Christian liberalism, which views God as being too loving to condemn anyone and necessarily denies the authenticity of the texts that state otherwise. Third, we should realize that religious groups that deny God’s wrath are frequently cultic. And fourth, we should remember that denial of God’s wrath removes the purpose and motivation for witnessing, namely; the God-glorifying salvation of unbelievers from sin and hell.

Bible teacher R. A. Torrey wisely wrote: “Shallow views of sin and of God’s holiness, and of the glory of Jesus Christ and His claims upon us, lie at the bottom of weak theories of the doom of the impenitent. When we see sin in all its hideousness and enormity, the Holiness of God in all its perfection, and the glory of Jesus Christ in all its infinity, nothing but a doctrine that those who persist in the choice of sin, who love darkness rather than light, and who persist in the rejection of the Son of God, shall endure everlasting anguish, will satisfy the demands of our own moral intuitions.… The more closely men walk with God and the more devoted they become to His service, the more likely they are to believe this doctrine”.

Throughout the history of the church, faithful men of God have understood and proclaimed the biblical truths that God is a God of justice and judgment and that His wrath is against all unbelief and ungodliness. That knowledge was the great motivation for their tireless service in winning the lost. John Knox pleaded before God, “Give me Scotland or I die.” As the young Hudson Taylor contemplated the fate of the unreached multitudes of China, he earnestly prayed, “I feel that I cannot go on living unless I do something for China.” Upon landing in India, Henry Martyn said, “Here I am in the midst of heathen midnight and savage oppression. Now, my dear Lord, let me burn out for Thee.” Adoniram Judson, the famed missionary to Burma, spent long, tiresome years translating the Bible for that people. He was eventually put into prison because of his work, and while there his wife died. After being released, he contracted a serious disease that sapped what little energy he had left. Nevertheless he prayed, “Lord, let me finish my work. Spare me long enough to put the saving Word into the hands of the people.” James Chalmers, a Scottish missionary to the South Sea Islands, was so burdened for the lost that someone wrote of him, “In Christ’s service he endured hardness, hunger, shipwreck and exhausting toil, and did it all joyfully. He risked his life a thousand times and finally was clubbed to death, beheaded, and eaten by men whose friend he was and whom he sought to enlighten.” Although he was unable to go overseas, Robert Arthington enabled countless others to go. By working hard and living frugally he managed to give over $500,000 to the work of foreign missions. He testified, “Gladly would I make the floor my bed, a box my chair, and another box my table, rather than that men should perish for want of the knowledge of Christ.”

Those faithful saints, and many others like them, have clearly understood the wrath and the judgment of God and the consequent horror of men dying without Christ. Without such understanding there is no basis for evangelism. If men are not lost, hopeless, and incapable of glorifying God apart from Christ, there is no reason for them to be saved by Him.

The biblical order in any gospel presentation is always first the warning of danger and then the way of escape, first the judgment on sin and then the means of pardon, first the message of condemnation and then the offer of forgiveness, first the bad news of guilt and then the good news of grace. The whole message and purpose of the loving, redeeming grace of God offering eternal life through Jesus Christ rests upon the reality of man’s universal guilt of abandoning God and thereby being under His sentence of eternal condemnation and death.

Consistent with that approach, the main body of Romans begins with 1:18, a clear affirmation of God’s wrath “against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” As the apostle points out in his Ephesian letter, all unbelievers are “by nature children of wrath” (2:3), born unto God’s wrath as their natural inheritance in fallen mankind. With the Fall, God’s smile turned to a frown. Moses rhetorically asked God, “Who understands the power of Thine anger, and Thy fury, according to the fear that is due Thee?” (Ps. 90:11).

The Puritan writer Thomas Watson said, “As the love of God makes every bitter thing sweet, so the curse of God makes every sweet thing bitter”. A more contemporary writer, George Rogers, said that God’s “righteous anger never rises, never abates: it is always at flood tide in the presence of sin because He is unchangeably and inflexibly righteous”.

How could One who delights only in what is pure and lovely not loathe what is impure and ugly? How could He who is infinitely holy disregard sin, which by its very nature violates that holiness? How could He who loves righteousness not hate and act severely against all unrighteousness? How could He who is the sum of all excellency look with complacency on virtue and vice equally? He cannot do those things, because He is holy, just, and good. Wrath is the only just response a perfectly holy God could make to unholy men. Righteous wrath therefore is every bit as much an element of God’s divine perfection as any other of His attributes, as Paul makes quite clear in Romans 9:22-23.

Paul is determined for us to know that before we can understand the grace of God we must first understand His wrath, that before we can understand the meaning of the death of Christ we must first understand why man’s sin made that death necessary; that before we can begin to comprehend how loving, merciful, and gracious God is we must first see how rebellious, sinful, and guilty unbelieving mankind is.

Tragically, even many evangelicals have come to soft-pedal the theme of God’s wrath and judgment. Even so much as a minimum mention of hell has been quietly removed from much preaching. Wrath, when mentioned at all, is frequently depersonalized, as if somehow it is worked out automatically by some deistic operation in which God Himself is not directly involved.

Many are inclined to wonder if man really deserves such a harsh fate. After all, no person asks to be born. Why then, they surmise, should a person who had nothing to do with his own birth spend eternity in hell for being born sinful? The question, “Why is everyone born under God’s wrath and condemnation?” deserves attention. It is those very questions that Paul answers in Romans 1:19-23, where he explains why God is justified in His wrath against all sinful men.

Some people, even some pagans, have recognized God’s right to be angry at man’s sin. During the priesthood of Eli, while the young Samuel still served under him in the Temple, Israel had reached a low spiritual level. There was religious tokenism but little genuine faith or obedience. Thinking to use the ark of the covenant much as a magic charm to assure their victory, Israel took it into battle against the Philistines. But Israel not only lost 30,000 men in the battle but also lost the ark of the covenant to the enemy. After suffering numerous disastrous and embarrassing experiences with the ark, the Philistines decided to return it to Israel. When they returned it, they sent along a guilt offering to assuage the anger of God against them. Although their understanding of Israel’s God was faulty and the offering they presented to Him was thoroughly pagan, they nevertheless recognized His power and His right to judge and punish them as being guilty of violating His honor (see 1 Sam. 4-6).

When Achan stole some of the booty from Jericho, all of which was to be given to the Tabernacle treasury, his sin caused Israel to be defeated at Ai. When his disobedience was exposed, he readily confessed, saying, “Truly, I have sinned against the Lord, the God Israel” (Josh. 7:20).

God is absolutely just, never condemning unless condemnation is deserved. Achan knew God’s law given through Moses and he knew of God’s special ban on taking the spoil from Jericho for personal use. The pagan Philistines, on the other hand, knew only of God’s tremendous power. But Achan and the Philistines both knew they were guilty before God and deserved His wrath. In Romans 1:19-23, Paul gives four reasons why they and every person born except Jesus Christ, fully deserve to be under God’s wrath. Those reasons may be identified as God’s revelation, man’s rejection, man’s rationalization, and man’s religion.

I need to emulate the great passion for souls displayed some of the great men of God of the past – and which was ultimately demonstrated by God Himself in the sending of His only begotten Son!